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To watch and participate in the historical process of the development of ideas is exhilarating as well as hypnotic. To be witness to the unfolding of the thought of one of the most influential exponents and innovators of object relations theory, such as Otto Kernberg, is to become focused on the need and justification for the "widening scope" of psychoanalysis, the nature of psychoanalytic evidence, and the exploration of the similarities and differences between character and symptom.
In this book, Kernberg seeks to illustrate his theoretical understanding of (1) the difficulties encountered by the middle aged; (2) love; (3) small and large groups; and (4) couples. He seems to be responding, at least in part, to the objections of some of his adherents as well as to those of his critics by giving more clinical data, by making his technical recommendations somewhat more explicit, and by elaborating his views about some specific areas of psychological behavior.
In this volume, Kernberg has much more clearly than ever before expressed the nature of his concepts and their derivation. He thus permits a comparison to be drawn between his thoughts and those of others as, for example, between his and Freud's views on affects. Originally,